A     R  E  V  I  E  W 

OF  THE 

Report*,  tfiriirmte  ani  Arguments, 

AS  PRESENTED 

IN  THE  CASE  OF  TRINITY  CHURCH, 

TO  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  NEW-YORK,  1857. 


t 


) 


A  REVIEW 


Of  the  Reports,  Evidence  and  Arguments,  as  Presented 
in  the  Case  of  Trinity  Church, 

TO  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  NEW- YORK,  1857. 


When  error  once  gets  the  start,  as  it  too  often  does  in  this 
evil  world,  truth  finds  it  hard  to  win  the  race.  The  passions, 
the  prejudices,  the  interests  of  men,  are  like  so  many  wires 
spread  over  the  land,  vibrating  to  the  electric  touch  of  falsehood- 
These  telegraphs,  swifter  than  Morse's,  are  the  willing  abet- 
tors of  designing  men,  and  carry  their  messages  in  every  direc- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  Truth,  old-fashioned  creature  that  she 
is,  delighting  not  in  modern  inventions,  keeps  to  the  old  mail- 
coach,  "her  swift-sure  line,"  and  makes  slow  progress  through 
the  mud  and  mire,  or  on  the  hard  road  she  has  to  tra- 
vel [after  error.  But  the  race  [is  not  always  to  the  swift! 
So  even  old  Trinity,  "  in  her  four-wheeled  chariot,"  as  a  face- 
tious divine  lately  pictured  her,  may  hope  to  overtake  the 
nimble-footed  rumors,  falsehoods,  and  misrepresentations  which 
designing  men  have  made  current,  though  swifter  in  their  course 
than  Atalanta  of  old.  She  would  be  sure  to  outstrip  them  if 
she  would  only  adopt  the  expedient  of  Hippomenes,  and  throw 
down  her  golden  apples  to  stay  their  course. 

It  is  strange  how  often  the  fables  of  ancient  mythology  find 
antitypes  in  the  realities  of  modern  history.  We  find  a  coun- 
terfeit presentment,  a  summary  account  of  the  whole  course 
of  proceedings  against  Trinity  Church,  in  a  fabulous  story  1263 
1 


N4T7 

2 

years  B.  C.  It  is  the  story  of  the  Argonauts  after  the  Golden 
Fleece.  All  these  expeditions  have  had  but  one  object — to 
fleece  old  Trinity.  The  ghosts  of  the  old  Argonauts  have  risen 
up  in  the  numerous  progeny  of  Aneke  Jantz  and  others  ;  and 
when  these  have  been  laid  by  the  voice  of  the  Law,  they  have 
started  up  afresh  in  the  more  proper  shapes  of  claimants 
for  ghostly  rights  long  defunct,  advocates  who  appear  as 
"  spiritual  mediums,"  to  diffuse  more  widely  the  solid  advan- 
tages of  the  golden  fleece,  now  guarded  by  the  Dragon 
Corporation  of  Trinity.  But  these  Argonauts  have  been  ship- 
wrecked in  their  vain  attempt  to  pass  the  Scyllaand  Charybdis 
of  the  Senate  and  Assembly,  or  crushed  between  these  Sym- 
plegades. 

If  we  were  believers  in  the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras,  we 
might  think  that  the  soul  of  Jason  had  at  length  passed  into 
the  body  of  the  Chairman  of  a  Committee  of  the  New- York  Sen- 
ate, and  that  under  his  guidance  the  new  ship  Argo,  built  in  the 
docks  of  New- York,  would  soon  return  from  Albany  freighted 
with  the  golden  prize !  The  potent  aid  of  the  party,  which 
seems  most  interested  in  wool,  is  hoped  for  in  stripping  from 
Trinity  her  golden  fleece.  If  they  can  only  lull  to  sleep  that 
watchful  dragon,  the  public,  the  flaying  process  will  soon  be 
accomplished.  But  all  their  incantations,  though  more  subtle 
than  those  of  Medea,  cannot  overcome  the  power  of  Truth. 
Let,  then,  her  voice  be  heard. 

But  has  not  this  voice  been  heard  ?  Have  there  not  been 
reports  of  a  Senatorial  Committee,  testimony  of  trust-worthy 
men,  and  arguments  of  learned  counsel  ?  Yes — there  have 
been  all  these,  and  more.  Perhaps  too  much,  rather  than  too 
little.  Truth,  like  the  Eoman  maiden,  beneath  the  Sabine 
shields,  may  be  crushed  under  the  multitude  of  pretended  de- 
fences. Our  design  is  not  to  increase  the  superincumbent 
mass,  but  to  strip  off  the  useless  bucklers,  under  whose  weight 
she  is  now  hidden,  and  crushed  to  the  earth.  That  is  the  end 
and  object  of  this  Eeview. 

The  authority  for  every  word  here  uttered  shall  be  estab- 
lished by  the  documents  printed  and  published  under  the  di- 
rection and  sanction  of  the  Senate.    Out  of  these,  in  which 


3 


there  is  no  small  admixture  of  chaff,  let  us  try  to  sift  the 
grains  of  Truth. 

A  brief  glance  at  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  proceedings 
in  the  present  case  will  further  our  object.  It  is  usual— we 
might  almost  say  a  law  established  by  universal  precedent — 
where  Legislative  bodies  are  called  upon  to  act  in  disturbance 
of  existing  interests,  which  have  long  enjoyed  the  quiet  protection 
of  law,  that  the  case  should  be  presented  in  the  shape  of  a  mem- 
orial, bearing  known  and  responsible  signatures.  This  seems  a 
needful  safeguard  against  improper  legislation.  Thus  only  can 
a  Senate  be  preserved  from  imposition,  and  the  rights  of  others 
be  protected  from  the  expense  and  vexation  of  needless  disturb- 
ance. The  present  proceedings  against  Trinity  Church  had 
not  this  fair,  honest,  and  righteous  beginning.  They  began  on 
the  motion  of  a  single  senator.  Whether  he  was  impelled  by 
his  own  interests  and  prejudices,  or  some  other  hand  held  the 
concealed  wire  which  gave  him  impulse,  was  not  known  to  the 
Senate,  or  those  most  interested.  For  all  the  Senate,  or  the 
public  knew,  he  might  have  been  the  representative  of  some  hos- 
tile sect,  of  Brigham  Young,  or  Fanny  Lee  Townsend  !  It  was 
not  until  after  the  Report  of  the  Committee  in  January  last, 
that  the  Senate,  or  the  friends  of  Trinity,  learned  anything  of 
the  real  movers  in  this  matter.  Then  it  was  that  they  gathered 
from  the  witnesses — for  in  this  strange  judicial  proceeding  of 
a  legislative  body,  there  is  no  distinction  between  witnesses  and 
accusers,  judges  and  jury — that  the  real  movers  in  the  present  , 
proceedings,  were  those  who  had  been  foiled  in  similar  efforts 
before  the  Senate  in  1846,  and  unanimously  rejected  by  the  As- 
sembly in  1847  !  It  was  wise  to  keep  these  parties  in  the  back 
ground.  More  recent  discoveries  have  shown,  that  among  the 
most  active  movers  in  this  matter,  are  those  not  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church ;  one  of  whom,  their  Goliath  of  Gath,  though  not 
quite  so  invincible,  nor  battling  openly  as  this  manly  champion, 
owns  that  he  has  been  engaged  for  two  years  past  in  this  work. 
The  sling  and  stones  of  simple  truth  may  be  too  mighty  even 
for  the  chain  armor  of  party  politics  ! 

The  first  resolutions  were  passed  in  the  hurry  and  crowded 
business  of  the  close  of  the  session  of  1855.    In  their  intention 


4 


and  in  the  points  they  touch,  as  well  as  in  those  they  omit,  and  in 
their  limitations  of  time  and  space  so  as  to  exclude  some  of  the 
noblest  deeds  and  gifts  of  Trinity,  they  show  a  designing  and 
a  skilful  hand.  These  resolutions  were  answered  by  the  Vestry, 
fully  and  fairly  ;  whereupon,  again  without  any  memorial  from 
any  body,  the  hidden  impulse  again  acted,  and  just  in  the  nick 
of  time,  and  just  in  the  most  effective  way.  A  few  minutes 
*  before  the  close  of  the  Session  of  1856,  the  Report  of  the 
Church  was  referred  to  a  Committee  clothed  with  vague  and 
plenary  powers  to  act  as  they  like.  One  long  connected  with 
the  New- York  Argonauts  is  made  chairman,  and  so  the  ship 
Argo,  commanded  by  the  Honorable  Mark  Spencer,  once  more 
puts  to  sea  with  a  roving  commission.  Well  may  Trinity 
tremble  for  her  golden  fleece !  After  cruising  around  for 
some  months  in  search  of  witnesses  and  other  sources  of  infor- 
mation, they  dropped  anchor  in  New- York  harbor,  in  the 
month  of  December. 

Here  they  remained  and  examined  witnesses  of  their  own 
selection  for  parts  of  five  days.  Of  these  witnesses  and  their 
evidence,  we  shall  speak  hereafter.  Some  think  that  the  guar- 
dians of  the  golden  fleece  were  indulging  in  a  short  nap  at 
this  time,  lulled  into  repose  by  their  confidence  in  the  hono- 
rable material  of  which  this  Committee  was  composed.  On 
the  whole  it  was,  we  are  inclined  to  think,  better  that  the 
Vestry  let  the  Committee  alone  at  this  time.  Their  choice  of 
the  witnesses  summoned  by  them  ;  their  selection  of  the  ques- 
tions asked  ;  the  judicious  brevity  of  some  examinations  ;  the 
prolix  disquisitions  drawn  out  from  others  who  were  made  to 
swear  not  only  to  their  own  opinions,  but  even  to  their  own  in- 
terpretations  of  law  (which  we  deem  rather  hard  swearing, 
especially  on  a  Church  question),  make  as  plain  as  daylight 
the  animus  and  intention  exciting  and  governing  this  investi- 
gation.   Its  end  was  not  truth,  but  the  fleece ! 

The  Committee  having,  in  this  judicious  manner,  obtained 
just  the  facts  they  wanted,  on  the  testimony  of  chosen  wit- 
nesses— a  soft  compound  of  opinions  and  judgments,  and  hear- 
say evidence,  which  they  sought  to  harden  into  solidity  by  the 
compression  of  oaths — evidence  which  any  court  of  law  would 


5 


have  driven  from  the  judgment-seat — give  to  the  Senate  the 
result  of  their  expedition,  in  what  they  call  a  Report ;  but 
which  is  in  fact  a  mere  ex  parte  argument  for  which  they  well 
deserved  a  fee  from  their  clients,  the  opposers  of  Trinity  !  As 
this  Report  of  the  Argonautic  expedition  has  been  completely 
thrown  into  the  shade  by  a  second  more  brilliant  effort,  still 
more  deserving  of  a  fee  on  the  part  of  their  clients,  we  shall  let 
it  rest  in  its  merited  obscurity  ! 

One  good  effect,  at  least,  it  had.  It  thoroughly  aroused  the 
Corporation  of  Trinity  Church  to  a  sense  of  the  extent  and 
spirit  of  the  hostile  forces  arrayed  against  them.  Men  of 
high  honor,  who  have  never  thought  of  advancing  a  selfish  in- 
terest by  the  power  entrusted  to  them,  who  have  ever  sought 
honestly  and  truly  to  discharge  their  duty  to  the  Church,  they 
were  slow  to  believe  that  such  a  confederacy  could  be  arrayed 
in  this  free  land,  and  under  this  just  government,  to  despoil 
the  trust  of  which  they  were  the  guardians.  Men  who  acted 
always  in  the  light  of  day,  they  were  no  matches  for  those 
who,  without  fear,  but  not  all  without  reproach,  were  working 
against  them  in  the  dark.  In  the  voice  of  this  Report  comes 
to  them  the  assurance — "They  have  taken  crafty  counsel 
against  thy  people,  and  consulted  against  thy  hidden  ones  : 
they  have  said,  Come,  and  let  us  cut  them  off  from  being  a  na- 
tion, that  the  name  of  Israel  may  be  no  more  in  remembrance. 
For  they  have  consulted  together  with  one  consent — they  are 
confederate  against  thee.  The  tabernacles  of  Edom  and  the 
Ishmaelites  ;  of  Moab  and  the  Hagarenes  ;  Gebal,  and  Ammon, 
and  Amalek ;  the  Philistines  with  the  inhabitants  of  Tyre  ; 
Assur  also  is  joinecf  with  them;  they  have  holpen  the  children 
of  Lot." 

Astonished  at  the  character  of  the  testimony  and  report,  as 
well  they  might  be,  which  had  thus  been  brought  against  her, 
the  Vestry  of  Trinity  Church  now  demand  that  her  witnesses 
s  hall  be  heard — witnesses  who  shall  swear  to factsnot  to  opinions  ; 
witnesses  who  shall  testify  what  they  do  know  and  what  they 
have  seen  ;  who  shall  not  kiss  the  Word  of  everlasting  truth  to 
give  weight  to  their  speculations  about  the  worth  of  property, 
in  order  to  place  a  body  of  the  most  honorable  men  in  the 


6 


community  beside  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  in  keeping  back  part 
of  the  price  of  their  land!  With  presumption,  we  must  use 
the  true  word,  which  the  dignity  of  a  Senator,  not  of  Venice 
but  of  free  America,  will  not  excuse,  this  Committee  imply 
that  it  was  a  gracious  act  of  condescension  on  their  part  to 
hear  this  side  of  the  evidence,  a  wonderful  exhibition  of  patience 
that  they,*  for  several  days,  "quietly  listened  also  to  the  very 
long  arguments  of  the  counsel  from  whom  the  objection  pro- 
ceeded." Are  they  not  the  movers  in  this  affair ;  the  disturbers 
of  their  own  peace  and  quiet  ?  And  they  even  venture  to 
charge  the  Corporation  with  regretting  "  that  so  little  had  been 
made  of  the  opportunity  afforded  them  in  the  City  of  New- 
York,  when  the  Committee  made  a  written  communication  to  the 
Vestry  before  they  commenced  talcing  testimony. "  The  Vestry 
replied  to  this  in  a  "  written  communication."  More  than  this 
they  could  not  do  with  propriety,  as  all  the  other  witnesses 
were  called  by  a  regular  summons.  More  than  this,  we  sup- 
pose, they  never  would  have  done,  had  it  not  been  for  the  out- 
rageous ex  parte  character  of  the  testimony  and  report. 

Well,  this  condescending  and  most  patient  Committee  hear 
this  evidence  of  faithful  and  true  men — Bishops,  Priests,  and 
Laymen,  of  honorable  renown  in  the  Church  of  God.  Nay, 
we  are  wrong  in  saying  they  all  hear  it !  Notwithstanding 
their  professions  of  Job-like  patience,  in  listening  to  the  side 
they  did  not  want  to  bear,  there  is  the  usual  variance  here  be- 
tween the  fact  and  the  assertions  of  their  Report.  The  Hon. 
A.  J.  Parker,  the  learned  and  able  Counsel  of  Trinity  Church, 
thus  speaks  to  the  Committee  (Arguments, jd.  38)  :  "I  regard 
it  as  a  great  misfortune  to  us,  in  this  case,  that  some  of  our 
testimony  was  taken  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Ramsey,  and  the 
greater  part  of  it  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Noxon."  These 
gentlemen,  however,  may  feel  happy  in  being  thus  relieved 
from  part  of  the  responsibility  of  this  partizan  Report.  Well, 
we  may  suppose  the  Chairman,  who  heard  it  all,  and  perhaps 
some  friend  slightly  interested  in  this  case,  holding  solemn 
council  over  the  matter.    We  can  imagine  the  learned  Chair- 


*  Report,  p.  3. 


7 


man  seeming,  as  Judge  Parker  said  those  ought  to  be  who 
assume  the  judicial  character,  "  like  a  piece  of  blank  paper" — 
when  he  beholds  all  this  testimony  of  his  chosen  witDesses,  and 
his  beloved  Report  demolished  by  the  collision  of  the  new 
evidence !  What  shall  be  done  ?  His  Report,  the  locomo- 
tive, and  the  long  train  of  evidence,  are  all  a  hopeless  wreck, 
and  the  passengers,  the  witnesses,  are  so  maimed  and  injured, 
that  they  can  do  him  no  more  service !  Fortunately  there  is 
at  hand  a  veteran  engineer  who  has  driven,  for  many  years, 
locomotives  on  the  State  roads,  who  has  had  many  a  collision, 
in  which  locomotive,  cars,  and  passengers,  have  been  smashed 
up,  and  who  has  always  managed  to  take  care  of  number  one, 
and  escape  unhurt,  and  who,  although  he  ran  the  train  off  the 
track  on  the  last  line,  has  lately  been  made  first  engineer  on 
a  new  road,  parts  of  wrhich  are  very  dangerous.  The  veteran 
answers  the  despairing  gaze  of  the  Senatorial  engineer  with 
a  look  of  calm  assurance.  To  the  question,  u  What  shall  be 
done  ?"  He  answers,  "  Clear  first  all  this  rubbish  off  the  track, 
and  fire  up  another  engine."  "  But  we've  got  to  drag  that 
fresh  train  of  evidence  after  us,  and  I'm  "afraid  if  I  put  head 
enough  of  steam  on,  it  will  blow  us  up  !"  "  Oh,  never  fear,  '  go 
ahead,'  and  I'll  uncouple  the  cars  which  give  us  any  trouble, 
and  leave  them  behind  !"  "  But  then  the  company  will  miss 
the  cars,  and  I  will  be  called  to  account."  "  Never  fear,  they 
are  so  much  crowded  with  business  just  now  that  they  will 
only  look  at  the  locomotive,  and  never  mind  the  cars." 

That  some  such  plan  as  this  was  hit  upon  by  the  Chairman 
and  his  advisers,  a  further  examination  will  make  evident. 
The  last  Report  quietly  drops  all  the  evidence  likely  to  give 
any  trouble,  or  which  is  irreconcilable  with  the  former  Report 
and  testimony.  When  troublesome,  evidence  must  be  referred 
to,  it  shapes  and  moulds  this  to  fit,  sometimes  even  by  the 
alteration  of  language !  It  passes  quietly  by  all  the  difficulties 
which  would  interfere  with  the  desired  conclusions;  is  silent 
about  facts  of  which  it  dare  not  speak,  and  most  loquacious 
in  setting  forth  its  favorite  opinions  and  conclusions.  All  this 
we  will  prove  by  quotations  from  the  two  documents.  With 
this  understanding  of  its  past  history,  we  are  now  prepared  to 
look  at  the  question  as  it  stands  plain  and  clear  before  us. 


8 


Let  us  take  two  different  views  of  this  question.  First,  as 
a  matter  of  right,  let  us  see  in  what  shape  this  question  should 
iustly  have  come  up  before  a  legislative  body.  This  will  prepare 
us  for  a  second  and  more  important  consideration  of  the  matter 
of  fact,  viz. :  the  strange  form  in  which  this  question  lias  actually 
been  presented  before  the  New-  York  Senate. 

I.  As  a  matter  of  right,  let  us  see  in  what  shape  this  ques- 
tion should  justly  have  come  up  before  a  legislative  body. 

We  suppose  that  it  would  require  no  very  deep  or  profound 
knowledge  of  Blackstone  to  settle  it  as  an  axiom  of  common 
sense,  that  there  should  be  no  intermingling  of  the  legislative 
and  judicial  functions.  Legislators  should  never  attempt  to 
clothe  themselves  in  ermine.  The  question  regarding  the  right- 
ful possessors  of  the  property  of  Trinity  Church,  or  any  other 
property,  is  purely  a  legal  one.  We  hold  that  it  is  a  question 
belonging  to  the  Courts,  not  to  the  Legislature.  But  even 
those  who  think  that  it  may  be  forced  upon  the  Legislature, 
cannot  differ  from  us  in  the  position  that  its  merits  are  to  be 
determined  by  the  acts  of  the  past,  and  not  by  the  misdeeds 
of  the  present.  In  this  view,  we  are  happy  to  find  that  the 
learned  Committee  of  the  Senate  fully  and  entirely  agree  with 
us.  Among  the  many  points  of  difference,  and  their  name  is 
legion,  we  are  most  happy  to  discover  one  of  agreement !  We 
trust  the  following  declaration  was  not  lost  upon  the  Honor- 
able Senate : 

"  The  objection  which  is  raised  to  the  proposition  to  allow 
'  all  the  inhabitants  in  communion,'  &c,  to  vote  for  vestrymen, 
for  the  reason  that  it  may  create  tumult  or  confusion,  is  one 
of  little  weight,  compared  with  a  right  vested  under  ancient 
grants  and  acts.  It  may  become  an  unwieldy  corporation; 
but  in  looking  at  the  right  of  the  beneficiaries,  we  can  hardly 
be  called  upon  to  take  into  account  the  difficulties  which  may 
attend  the  annual  elections." — (Seond  Report  of  Select  Com- 
mittee, p.  8.) 

We  accept  this  from  the  Committee  of  the  Senate,  as  a  true 
view  of  the  real  question  at  issue.  They  here  declare  that 
consequences,  however  disastrous,  are  not  to  be  considered, 
because  they  furnish  an  objection  "  of  little  weight,  compared 


9 


with  a  right  vested  under  ancient  grants  and  acts"  If,  as  they 
justly  argue,  mere  consequences  are  not  to  be  regarded,  how  can 
any  weight  be  given  to  antecedents  which  do  not  touch  these 
"  ancient  grants  and  acts?"  By  their  own  showing,  the  only 
question  which  could  be  entertained  by  the  Senate,  was  whether 
a  repeal  of  the  Law  of  1814  toas  called  for,  because  it  un- 
justly affected  tl  a  right  vested  under  ancient  grants  and  acts" 
By  the  showing  of  their  own  Committee,  then,  it  is  no  mere 
presumption  of  private  judgment.  The  proper  course  of  the 
Senate,  when  this  matter  was  presented,  should  have  been  to 
appoint  a  Committee  of  the  most  learned  lawyers  of  their  own 
body  to  investigate  this  great  question  of  law,  and  then  to  give 
the  result  in  the  shape  of  a  report  upon  these  legal  points.  If 
such  a  Committee,  sufficiently  learned  in  the  law,  could  not  be 
gathered  from  their  own  legislative  ranks,  the  law  officers  and 
Judges  of  the  State  were  easy  of  access.  We  do  not  happen 
to  know  to  what  profession  the  members  of  the  Select  Com- 
mittee belong,  but  the  manner  and  result  of  their  labors  have 
not  impressed  us  with  any  profound  veneration  for  the  depth 
of  their  legal  attainments. 

The  Resolutions  of  Inquiry,  adopted  by  the  Senate,  were 
the  first  steps  from  the  direct  course.  This  led  to  the  second 
false  step,  the  appointment  of  a  Committee,  with  inquisitorial 
powers,  to  pry  into  matters  not  within  the  province  of  legisla- 
tion, and  which  did  not,  as  the  Committee  itself  shows,  really 
affect  the  question  at  issue.  This  was,  indeed,  a  long  stride 
from  the  straight  path  of  just  legislation  over  freemen,  and  it  has 
led  the  Committee  and  Senate  into  the  maze  of  a  labyrinth,  in 
quest  of  the  truth  which  was  plain  and  straight  before  them. 
If  such  important  interests  were  not  involved — if  truth  and  jus- 
tice and  indefeasible  right  were  not  at  stake,  it  would  be  al- 
most amusing  to  follow  the  strange  windings  and  turnings  of 
their  erratic  course.  There  is  a  sort  of  fascination  to  the  hu- 
man mind  in  following  the  devious  steps  of  error,  as  lights  and 
shadows  diversify  its  track,  giving  it  the  charm  of  variety  ; 
while  there  is  less  delight  in  the  straight  and  even  path  of  truth 
on  which  the  broad  daylight  only  shines.  We  admire  the  jus- 
tice, and  the  high-souled  magnanimity  of  this  Select  Committee 


10 

of  our  Senate,  when  we  hear  them  nobly  resolving  to  uphold 
the  right,  fearless  of  consequences,  unterrified  by  calamities 
which  may  ensue,  and  which  the  Bishops  of  New- York  and 
other  witnesses  have  proved  will  be  great.  No  "  tumult  or 
confusion"  (p.  8  of  Report)  of  Church  or  State— no  "difficulties," 
however  appalling,  shall  affright  their  souls  in  the  stead- 
fast purpose  of  maintaining  "  a  right  vested  under  ancient 
grants  and  acts."  Visions  of  old  patriots  and  Senators  arise 
before  us,  and  we  almost  hear,  in  this  triple  voice  of  the  Com- 
mittee, the  tones  of  Solon,  Lycurgus,  and  Brutus.  But  the 
vision  fades,  as  mortal  visions  too  often  do,  when  we  further 
hear  these  same  voices,  in  which  the  noble  resolve  had  been 
expressed,  not  to  shrink  from  "right,5'  because  of  the  evil  which 
should  ensue,  resting  the  whole  strength  of  their  case  on  proof s, 
that  because  the  present  holders  of  this  right,  "  vested  under  an- 
cient grants  and  acts"  had  not  wisely  used  their  powers,  therefore, 
it  should  be  conveyed  to  other  hands.  Thus  the  heroic  souls, 
which  were  unterrified  by  future  consequences,  are  overwhelmed 
by  past  consequences.    Truly,  "  circumstances  alter  cases  !" 

After  themselves  laying  down  this  just  principle,  from  which 
there  is  no  escape,  that  this  was  a  question  of  right,  determined 
alone  by  ancient  grants  and  acts,  the  Select  Committee  rest  the 
great  burden  of  their  proof  upon  what  ?  Upon  Law — upon  the 
tenor,  and  words,  and  provisions  of  "  ancient  grants  and 
acts  ?"  Let  the  evidence  of  their  own  selected  witnesses,  and 
their  own  Reports,  answer.  These  documents  are  accessible 
to  every  reader,  and  they  will  settle  the  truth  or  falsity  of  this 
Review.  We  challenge  any  reader  of  these  to  disprove  the 
correctness  of  the  assertion,  that,  according  to  these  documents, 
the  merits  of  the  question  presented  for  the  decision  of  the 
Senate,  by  their  Committee,  are  made  to  rest  wholly  upon 
the  manner  in  which  this  trust  has  been  administered  by  those 
who  have  held  it  since  1814.  The  "  right  vested  "  in  the  pre- 
sent Corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  is  to  be  disturbed  by  new 
legislation,  not  because  of  "  ancient  grants  and  acts,"  but  be- 
cause of  the  errors  and  sins  of  the  Vestry.  They  have  not 
built  free  Churches  ;  they  have  not  endowed  charities ;  they 
have  not  given  lots ;  they  have  given  too  much  to  high  church- 


11 


men,  too  little  to  the  "  low ;"  they  have  undervalued  the 
amount  of  their  property,  &c,  &c,  therefore  they  may  no 
longer  be  stewards  ! 

Between  two  and  three  pages  of  the  first  Report  out  of  the 
twenty-seven,  are  alone  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  the  ques- 
tion as  one  of  law  and  "right  vested  under  ancient  grants  and 
acts"  and  this  consists  mainly  of  the  reiterations  of  the 
opinions  and  views  presented  by  the  single  witness  who  testified 
on  this  point — the  Hon.  Luther  Bradish.  We  suppose  it  was 
rather  hard  to  get  lawyers  to  give  opinions,  under  oath,  as  to 
disputed  points  of  law.  Yet,  prefixed  to  his  extended  views  of 
this  question,  appear  the  words,  "  Luther  Bradish,  sworn  /" 
Another  eminent  lawyer  among  the  witnesses,  Mr.  Cambre- 
leng,  attempts  no  such  solemn  exposition.  In  the  second  Re- 
port of  the  Committee,  parts  of  Jive  pages  out  of  the  tiventy-one 
are  given  to  the  discussion  of  the  law  points,  and  all  the  rest 
devoted  to  a  discussion  of  the  maladministration  of  the  Yes- 
try,  and  a  vindication  of  the  assertions  of  the  first  Report  on 
this  subject !  This  appears  the  more  remarkable,  as  two  learned 
lawyers,  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  subject,  Mr.  Gouver- 
neur  M.  Ogden,  and  Hon.  A.  J.  Parker,  argued  the  case  be- 
fore the  Committee,  on  "  the  questions  of  fact"  and  "  the 
questions  of  law."  Both  these  arguments  are  distinguished 
by  signal  ability,  and  by  the  clearness  and  force  with  which 
they  place  the  questions  before  the  Committee.  They  are  brief, 
terse,  and  pointed,  without  one  needless  word.  The  Commit- 
tee hardly  deign  to  notice  these,  except  to  say  (p.  3)  that  they 
were  "  very  long,"  and  they  "  quietly  listened  "  to  them  ! 
Perhaps,  as  the  learned  counsel  did  not  swear  to  their  own 
arguments  and  opinions,  they  were  so  lightly  regarded. 
They  however  show,  in  this  treatment,  their  disregard  of 
the  evidence  presented  by  the  Yestry.  Indeed,  this  Commit- 
tee entertain  quite  an  original  view  of  the  office  of  a  Report  of 
a  Committee.  It  has  been  usually  understood  to  be  a  digested 
account  of  the  facts  and  arguments  presented  before  them. 
This  Select  Committee  appear  to  consider  it  as  a  statement  of 
their  own  views  and  opinions,  quite  independent  of  the  evi- 
dence, and  the   arguments   addressed  to   them !     We  can 


12 


only  thus  understand,  not  only  their  omissions  and  contradic- 
tions of  important  evidence,  as  we  shall  show  hereafter,  but 
also  their  entire  silence  as  to  the  unanswerable,  as  we  think, 
arguments  on  the  "questions  of  law,"  addressed  to  them  by  the 
learned  and  distinguished  Counsel  of  Trinity  Church. 

We  are  compelled  to  think,  however,  unwillingly,  that  this 
Committee  were  influenced  by  a  partial  desire  to  make  out  a 
case  against  Trinity ;  that  they  lost  sight  of  their  duty  as 
Senators  of  this  great  State,  in  looking  after  the  interests  of 
those  for  whom  they  appear  as  advocates,  when  their  Report 
magnifies  and  dwells  upon  every  point  of  adverse  evidence, 
though  not  bearing  upon  the  question  at  issue,  and  passes 
over,  4<  in  solemn  silence,"  the  great  points  of  the  case,  as  pre- 
sented by  Judge  Parker,  in  his  arguments,  on  "the  questions 
of  law."  A  very  brief  summary  of  these  unnoticed  points  will 
establish  this  conviction. 

We  can  discover  no  special  reference  to  the  following  points 
of  law,  made  by  the  Counsel  of  Trinity  Church. 

1.  That  nearly  all  this  evidence,  on  both  sides,  is  entirely 
foreign  to  the  main  object — the  repeal  of  the  law  of  1814. 

2.  That  the  original  charter  of  1697  provided  that  the 
Wardens  and  Vestrymen  should  be  elected  1  by  the  majority 
of  votes  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  parish?  in  communion  of 
our  Protestant  Church  of  England,  within  our  City  of  New- 
York. 

3.  By  the  act  of  1784,  in  addition  to  communicants,  those 
now  allowed  to  vote,  1  who  shall  either  hold,  occupy,  or  enjoy 
a  pew  or  seat  in  the  said  church,  and  shall  regularly  pay  to  the 
support  of  said  church?  &c.  The  plea  that  the  words,  in  said 
church,  apply  to  all  communicants  and  pew-holders  in  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  New- York,  is  disproved  by  the  title  of 
the  Act,  which  is  called  "  An  Act  for  making  alterations  in  the 
charter  of  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church?'  &c.  And  these 
words  are  further  explained  in  the  second  section,  where 
power  is  given  to  the  Wardens  and  Vestrymen  to  call  and  in- 
duct a  Rector  to  the  said  church,  so  often  as  there  shall  be  any 
vacancy  therein. 

4.  That  from  1784  to  1812,  a  period  of  twenty-eight  years, 


13 


though  from  1793  there  were  other  churches,  no  one  out  of  the 
parish  voted  or  claimed  a  right  to  vote.  That  this  claim  was 
made,  but  not  allowed,  by  two  or  three  persons  of  another 
parish,  in  a  contested  election.  This  claim  led  to  the  applica- 
tion, on  the  part  of  the  Vestry,  for  the  law  of  1814,  entitled, 
'An  Act  to  alter  the  name  of  the  Corporation  of  Trinity 
Church  in  New- York,  and  for  other  purposes.'  " 

In  this  connection,  Judge  Parker  quotes  from  a  letter  ad- 
dressed, on  the  12th  April,  1812,  by  the  Rector,  Wardens 
and  Vestry  of  St.  Marks : — 

We  have  learned,  with  regret,  that  some  of  our  Episcopal  brethren 
assert  the  claim  of  a  general  right,  in  all  the  Episcopal  Churches  in  this 
island,  to  vote  at  your  elections  for  Churchwardens  and  Vestrymen. 
Whatever  color  may  be  given  to  this  claim  by  any  ambiguous  words  to 
be  found  in  your  charter,  we  sincerely  take  pleasure  in  declaring,  that  the 
congregation  of  St.  Mark's,  which  we  represent,  have  no  desire  to  assert 
the  claim,  and  that  we  will,  at  any  time  hereafter,  cheerfully  unite  with 
your  respectable  body,  in  an  application  to  the  Legislature,  if  the  measure 
shall  be  thought  expedient,  to  explain  the  charter,  and  confine  the  right 
of  voting  to  the  congregations  of  the  churches  under  your  immediate 
government. 

5.  It  is  an  erroneous  impression,  that  the  property  of  Trinity 
Church  is  held  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  others.  A  careful 
examination  of  the  charter  will  show  that  the  property  was 
given  to  the  corporation  alone,  as  its  own  absolute  property. 
That  this  erroneous  impression  on  this  subject  has  grown  out 
of  the  original  name  given  to  the  corporation.  That  the  grant 
made  to  "  The  Rector  and  Inhabitants  of  the  City  of  New- 
York,  in  communion  of  our  Protestant  Church,  &c,  is  a  grant 
to  the  Corporation,  in  conformity  with  old  titles.  That  exactly 
similar  titles  exist  in  the  cases  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  Albany ; 
of  the  Church  of  Fishkill ;  Grace  Church,  Jamaica,  Long 
Island,  and  in  the  first  Church  at  Poughkeepsie." 

6.  The  original  charter,  giving  power  to  the  church  officers 
"to  choose,  nominate,  and  appoint  so  many  officers  of  our 
liege  people,  as  they  should  think  fit,  and  shall  be  willing  to 
accept  the  same,  to  be  members  of  the  said  Church  and  Cor- 
poration." 

7.  That  a  person  can  be  a  parishioner  in  but  one  parish. 


14 


8.  That  a  change  in  chartered  rights  cannot  be  made  by 
the  Legislature  alone,  but  requires  also  the  consent  of  the  Corpo- 
ration. This  point  is  alluded  to  by  the  Committee.  In'reply 
to  it,  they  say  that  as  they  have  come  to  a  conclusion  to  intro- 
duce a  bill  to  amend  the  act,  and  not  for  its  repeal — this 
question  does  not  properly  arise." 

A  reference  to  the  amendment  reported,  will  show  that  the 
"  old  bottles"  will  hardly  hold  this  "  new  wine." 

9.  The  lapse  of  forty-three  years  is  conclusive  against  any 
supposed  individual  claim  of  a  corporator.  It  is  a  lapse  of  time 
twice  that  required  to  bar  a  claim  to  real  property ;  seven 
times  that  which  would  bar  an  action  on  contract,  &c. 

Surely  these,  and  many  others  like  them,  were  points  which 
might  well  have  claimed  the  special  notice  of  this  Committee. 

Their  fair  discussion  would  have  suited  better  the  dignity 
and  object  of  this  Report  to  the  Senate  than  its  present  com- 
position, from  the  vague,  one-sided,  and  hear-say  evidence  and 
gossip  of  uninformed  and  prejudiced  witnesses.  All  such  tes- 
timony is  powerless  against  the  convictions,  and  the  evidence, 
and  the  arguments,  which  must  have  influenced  the  Legislature 
of  18]  4.  It  is  no  disparagement  to  the  wisdom  of  the  present 
Senate  and  Assembly  to  say,  that  the  action  of  such  a  body 
of  men,  of  whom  the  Empire  State  may  well  be  proud,  carries 
with  it  a  weight  of  authority  deserving  their  highest  venera- 
tion. No  urgent  calls  of  interested  parties,  no  special  plead- 
ings of  partizan  committees,  should  drive  them  to  cast  reproach 
upon  the  wisdom  of  the  past,  of  noble  patriots  whose  honored 
names  have  even  been  defamed  in  this  unholy  cause.  Sooner 
far  should  they  burst  the  chains  of  party  bondage,  than  rudely 
break  the  golden  links  by  which  memory  connects  them  with 
the  honored  dead — the  illustrious  legislators  of  1814.  We  can- 
not better  refer  to  them  than  in  the  eloquent  language  of  Judge 
Parker,  in  his  argument  before  the  Select  Committee  : 

At  that  time,  the  office  of  Attorney-General  of  this  State  was  filled  by 
that  eminent  jurist  and  good  man,  Abraham  Van  Vechten,  and  the  mat- 
ter was  referred  to  him  by  the  Assembly  for  his  opinion.  He  reported  as 
follows:  That  he  has  examined  a  printed  copy  of  the  charter  granted 
in  the  year  1697  to  the  rector  and  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New- York, 
as  then  established  by  law,  and  the  acts  altering  the  said  charter,  together 


15 


With  the  bill  referred  to  in  the  resolution  entitled,  '  An  Act  to  alter  the 
name  of  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  in  the  City  of  jNfew-York,  and 
for  other  purposes/  and  he  is  of  opinion  that  the  purpose  of  the  said  bill 
will  not  defeat  or  vary  any  existing  vested  rights  under  the  said  charter 
and  acts." 

Gentlemen — The  Legislature  of  1813  that  passed  that  act,  was  one  of 
the  ablest  that  ever  assembled  within  this  capitol.  Among  its  members 
were  Daniel  Cady,  Elisha  Williams,  J.  Rutsen  Van  Rensselaer,  Josiah 
Ogden  Hoffman,  Nathan  Sanford,  Morgan  Lewis,  Erastus  "Root,  and  Mar- 
tin Van  Buren,  the  most  able  and  distinguished  men  of  the  day — men 
not  likely  to  fall  into  the  error  of  invading,  by  their  legislation,  the  vested 
rights  of  any  citizen;  and  there  were  several  others  in  that  Legislature 
whom  I  ought,  perhaps,  to  have  named  in  that  list.  Six  of  those  distin- 
guished men,  whose  portraits  now-  grace  these  walls,  and  who  are  looking 
down  this  day  upon  our  doings,  were  concerned  in  the  passage  of  the  act 
of  1814,  either  as  members  of  the  Legislature  or  of  the  Council  of  Re- 
vision. The  bill  did  not  pass  the  Legislature  in  silence  ;  it  was  discussed 
and  examined.  When  it  came  before  the  Council  of  Revision,  objections 
in  writing  were  made  by  Chancellor  Lansing,  which,  on  further  examina- 
tion, were  abandoned,  and  finally  voted  against  by  their  author.  Those 
were  honest  days,  Mr.  Chairman,  when  a  public  officer,  who  had  been 
misled  by  an  erroneous  impression,  might  well  be  expected  to  acknowledge 
his  error  and  correct  it.  I  hope,  sir,  all  that  honesty  has  not  yet,  in  the 
expressive  language  of  the  Rev.  Jesse  Pound,  "  died  out."  For  this 
honest  and  frank  correction  of  an  opinion  by  Chancellor  Lansing,  his 
memory  has  been  recently  defamed  by  an  editor  of  a  newspaper  in  the 
City  of  New- York,  who  has  disgraced  himself  before  the  public,  by  im- 
puting to  the  Chancellor  that  this  change  of  opinion  was  obtained  by 
corrupt  means.  Shame  upon  such  licentiousness  of  the  press;  shame  upon 
the  man  who  will  thus  assail  the  memory  of  the  honored  dead — and  the 
greater  be  the  shame  if  the  slanderer  be  the  editor  of  a  newspaper  called 
"religious."  A  cause  must  be  desperate  that  requires  a  resort  to  such 
disreputable  means. 

Having  thus  shown,  in  accordance  with  the  declaration  of 
their  own  Committee,  how  this  great  question  of  right  should 
have  been  presented  before  the  Senate  of  New- York,  and  how 
it  was  not  so  presented  by  their  Select  Committee,  it  remains 
for  us  to  show  : 

II.  As  A  matter  of  fact,  in  what  manner  and  form  it  was 
presented. 

We  presume  most  of  our  readers  are  familiar  with  the  judi- 
cious Hooker's  noble  eulogy  of  Law,  wherein  he  says,  "  her 
voice  is  the  harmony  of  the  world,"  and  he  represents  "all  with 
uniform  consent,  admiring  her  as  the  mother  of  their  peace  and 
joy."  All  who  are  familiar  with  the  places  where  National  and 
State  Laws  are  born,  must  own  that,  like  other  infants,  their 
first  entrance  into  this  terrestrial  sphere  does  not  add  much  to 
"  the  harmony  of  the  world  ;"  and  whatever  they  may  be  in 


16  , 

their  maternal  state,  in  their  nascent  condition,  they  are  not 
the  promoters  of  our  peace  and  joy.  The  halls  of  legislation, 
the  cradles  of  law,  are  not  the  chosen  abodes  of  harmony  and 
peace.  Disturbing  elements  within  and  without  are  ever  at 
work,  in  unsettling  old  laws,  in  originating  new  ones.  Private 
interests,  party  ends,  popular  passions  and  prejudices,  are  busy 
in  the  work  of  legislation.  Men  of  clearest  minds,  of  strongest 
principles,  of  most  honest  aims,  are  not  unaffected  by  these  in- 
fluences. It  is  hard  to  escape  the  malaria  of  the  atmosphere 
we  breathe.  We  might  well  suppose  that  when  an  old  law 
was  to  be  changed,  or  a  new  one  made,  the  advocates  of  the 
measure  had  only  to  produce  their  strong  reasons,  to  allay 
doubts,  to  answer  objections,  and  when  conviction  was  brought 
home  to  the  minds  of  the  Legislators,  the  act  would  follow. 

Whatever  it  may  be  in  other  cases,  this  is  not  the  manner 
in  which  the  case  of  Trinity  Church  has  been  presented  to  the 
New-York  Senate.  It  has  not,  we  boldly  assert,  been  pre- 
sented as  a  question  of  right,  but  as  a  question  of  'prejudice, 
resting  almost  wholly,  as  the  learned  counsel  for  Trinity  de- 
clares, on  evidence  entirely  foreign  to  the  main  object  of  the  in- 
quiry. What  has  been  the  design  of  this  cloud  of  testimony, 
which  has  risen  around  the  real  question  before  the  Legislature, 
unless  it  has  been  to  hide  the  clear  sunlight  of  truth  ?  The 
December  fog,  which  gathered  round  the  Committee  in  New- 
York,  and  whose  density  seemed  to  increase  every  day,  it  was 
expected  would  roll  after  them  up  the  Hudson,  and  settle 
around  the  Capitol  at  Albany.  In  its  vapory  folds,  the  real 
question  has  been  obscured,  but  the  sunlight  can  penetrate  the 
thickest  mists  of  earth. 

We  have  shown  that  the  Select  Committee,  either  straving 
in  this  fog  which  others  had  raised  around  them,  or  wilfully 
shutting  their  eyes,  had  lost  sight  of  the  real  question  before 
them.  We  must  now  show  that  from  the  witnesses  summoned 
by  them,  from  the  character  of  the  evidence,  and  from  the  Reports, 
the  movers  of  this  matter  in  ihe  Senate,  and  the  Committee, 
and  those  who  have  helped  their  investigations,  have  proved 
themselves  only  anxious  to  excite  prejudices  and  uphold  inter- 
ests hostile  to  Trinity  Church.    We  only  ask  a  fair  hearing, 


17 


with  the  records  accessible  by  which  we  may  be  condemned  if 
our  statements  or  conclusions  are  untrue. 

1 .  The  witnesses  summoned  by  the  Committee. 

Among  these  we  cheerfully  admit,  are  men  of  the  highest 
respectability  and  character,  upon  whose  integrity  we  would 
be  the  last  to  throw  the  faintest  shadow  of  suspicion.  But  no 
man,  however  honest,  is  above  the  influence  of  prejudice.  As 
mists  cloud  the  brightest  scenes  of  nature,  so  prejudice  may 
obscure  the  clearest  minds.  It  may  be  the  real  conviction  of 
these  that  the  property  of  Trinity  Church  should  be  possessed 
by  all  the  churches  in  New- York,  especially  the  one  to  which 
they  belong ;  they  may  dislike  the  policy  of  the  Vestry,  or  ab- 
hor the  church  principles  which  prevail  among  them ;  they 
may  think  this  property  should  be  distributed  to  other  objects 
and  in  a  different  method  ;  they  may  desire  to  build  what  they 
call  free  churches,  or  endow  favorite  charities ;  they  may  be 
hostile  to  the  Episcopal  Church  or  to  all  churches,  and  have 
violent  feelings  against  all  ecclesiastical  endowments,  and  de- 
sire the  secularization  of  this  property,  and  thus  have  strong 
prejudices  on  this  subject.  They  have  full  right  to  enjoy  their 
feelings,  and  their  prejudices,  and  their  private  convictions, 
but  these  do  not  specially  qualify  them  to  be  fair  witnesses  in 
this  important  case.  Yet  this  seems  to  be  the  rule  by  which 
the  Committee  of  the  Senate  was  guided  in  their  choice  of 
witnesses  !  We  might  have  thought  they  would  have  recog- 
nized the  fact  that  every  disputed  question  has  two  sides,  but 
the  great  qualification  of  their  chosen  witnesses  seemed  to  be 
that  they  should  have  something  to  say  against  Trinity !  Ac- 
cordingly, all  those  who  were  forward  in  the  movements  of 
1846  and  '47  appear  in  the  list  of  witnesses.  On  this  head 
nothing  better  can  be  said  than  the  words  of  Mr.  Ogden,  in 
his  clear  and  forcible  presentment  of  the  questions  of  fact  be- 
fore the  Committee,  (p.  34.) 

And  let  me  in  this  connection  call  the  attention  of  the  Committee  to  the 
witnesses  that  are  supposed  to  substantiate  the  charges  against  the  Vestry. 
Three  of  them  are  assistant  ministers  of  Trinity  Church,  who  have  come 
to  Albany  to  explain  their  testimony,  and  have  vindicated  the  Church  ;  two 
are  vestrymen,  who  spoke  of  matters  since  explained  ;  eleven  others  testi- 
fied, merely,  as  to  the  values  of  lots  ;  Clayton,  as  to  the  lettings  of  pews 
2 


18 


in  Trinity  Chapel;  Wiley  and  Webb,  as  to  immaterial  matters  ;  and  Dr. 
Muhlenburg,  whose  motives  no  man  would  impeach,  testified,  as  he  him- 
self says,  on  information  merely,  so  far  as  concerns  any  facts  in  dispute, 
and  certainly  under  an  entire  misapprehension  of  the  ability  of  Trinity 
Church.  Leaving  out  those  I  have  just  named,  all  the  other  witnesses  are 
of  two  classes,  and  of  two  classes  only.  They  are  clergymen  who  have 
applied  on  behalf  of.  their  churches  to  Trinity  Church  for  aid,  and  have 
been  unsuccessful  in  their  applications  ;  or  they  are  parties  to  this  con- 
troversy, whom  it  suits  now  to  remain  concealed,  but  who  were  engaged 
in  the  same  contest  in  1846-47,  as  appears  in  evidence,  and  who,  it  may 
be  seen  by  the  public  prints,  are  at  this  moment  the  most  active  in  the 
game  attempt  which  was  made  in  those  years,  with  the  exception  of  Dr. 
Tyng,  who,  not  then  in  New-York,  was  not  on  the  former  occasions  a 
party,  but  is  now  among  the  most  violent.  They  sought,  under  cover  of 
the  clamor  they  intended  to  raise,  and  the  popular  prejudice  they  hoped 
to  excite,  to  procure  on  the  instant  the  repeal  of  the  Act  of  1814.  Actu- 
ated, then,  by  the  strongest  interest,  and,  if  there  is  any  force  in  my  com- 
ments upon  the  course  of  these  proceedings,  attached  with  all  the  blame 
and  odium  that  ought  to  fall  upon  the  authors  of  the  present  attack,  they 
came  before  the  Committee  to  testify  to  suspicions,  rumors,  and  hearsay, 
attributing  unworthy  motives  to  gentlemen,  if  not  so  high  in  position,  at 
least  as  respectable  as  themselves.  That  they  are  gentlemen  of  respecta- 
bility and  character,  I  admit,  but  their  positions  cannot  justify  disreputable 
conduct,  though  prompted  by  party  prejudice,  and  narrow,  distorted  views. 

As  a  striking  illustration  of  the  animus  and  strong  feelings 
governing  these  witnesses,  we  quote  from  the  letter  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Taylor  of  Grace  Church,  excusing  his  non-appearance 
at  Albany,  at  the  summons  of  the  Committee.  After  expres- 
sing "  the  most  perfect  respect  for  the  Committee,"  he  adds  : 

"While  I  thus  freely  and  sincerely  express  my  respect  for  your  Com- 
mittee, and  my  regret  at  not  being  permitted  to  aid  them  as  I  best  could, 
in  their  important  labors,  yet  you  must  permit  me  to  say,  Mr.  Chairman, 
that  none  of  this  respect,  and  nothing  of  this  regret  is  intended  by  me  to  ex- 
tend to  any  hired  agents  of  Trinity,  at  whose  instance,  as  I  take  it,  the 
summons  now  before  me  was  issued. 

During  the  meetings  of  your  Committee  in  this  city,  every  opportunity 
was  afforded  to  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  either  to  summon  wit- 
nesses or  to  propose  cross-interrogatories  to  every  witness  before  your  Com- 
mittee ;  and  if  in  their  superciliousness  or  reckless  negligence  they  did 
not  avail  themselves  of  their  privilege,  the  consequences  must  rest  upon 
themselves.  The  vexatious  course  they  are  now  pursuing,  of  attempting 
to  drag  gentlemen  from  their  business  and  their  homes  at  this  inclement 
season  of  the  year,  from  whom  they  well  know  that  they  cannot  ob- 
tain one  word  of  evidence  in  any  way  useful  to  Trinity  Church,  has  no 
other  earthly  object  than  to  gain  time,  and  thus  to  defeat,  by  posij^oning 
one  of  the  most  salutary  measures  of  reform  that  has  ever  claimed  the  at- 
tention of  the  Legislature  of  the  State." 

The  Reverend  writer,  it  will  be  seen,  expresses  his  "  regret 
at  not  being  permitted  to  aid  "  the  Committee  "  in  their  im- 


19 


portant  labors."  The  direction  of  his  testimony  shows  to  what 
these  "  labors  "  tend.  The  "  aid"  of  the  witness,  "the  labors  " 
of  the  Committee,  harmonize  in  loving  concord,  only  disturbed 
by  thoughts  of  "  the  hired  agents  of  Trinity,"  wickedly  "  at- 
tempting to  drag  gentlemen  from  their  business  and  their  homes," 
with  the  vain,  purpose  of  getting  the  whole  truth  out  of  them, 
which  the  Vestry,  in  their  "  reckless  negligence,"  thought  they 
would  give  of  themselves.  One  who  desired  to  "  aid  "  the  Com- 
mittee's pious  "  labors,"  feels  justly  indignant  at  the  very  thought 
that  any  of  their  chosen  witnesses  should  be  exposed,  "  at  this 
inclement  season  of  the  year,"  to  the  rigors  of  a  cross-examina- 
tion. We  wonder  it  did  not  strike  one  of  the  Doctor's  acute- 
ness,  that  if  "  gentlemen  "  had  minded  "  their  business,"  and 
not  been  "  busy-bodies  in  other  men's  matters,"  there  would 
have  been  no  occasion  to  drag  them  from  their  homes. 

Grace  Church  and  others  may,  in  the  estimation  of  some, 
monopolize  all  the  "gentlemen"  of  the  city,  but  among  those 
who  are  stigmatized  as  "  the  hired  agents  of  Trinity" — we  hope 
their  gentility  is  better  than  their  pay— are  some  who  stand  in 
this  community  on  as  high  a  level  even  as  the  Rector  of  Grace 
Church.  In  the  comparison  some  might  be  reminded  of  the 
familiar  dialogue,  "Are  you  the  man  wat's  going  to  ride?" 
"  Well,  I'm  the  gen'leman  wot's  going  to  drive  you."  So  much 
for  the  chosen  witnesses  of  this  Select  Committee. 

2.  We  have  now  to  speak  of  the  character  of  the  evidence 
sought  by  the  Committee.  Of  course,  from  what  has  been  said 
of  the  chosen  witnesses,  it  was  for  the  most  part  against  Trinity. 
The  sole  witness  who  testified  on  the  question  of  right,  which 
the  Committee  has  declared  to  be  the  only  question  to  be  re- 
garded, was  the  Hon.  Luther  Bradish.  His  testimony  is  thus 
characterized  by  Mr.  Ogden  in  his  argument : 

"  Controverted  positions,  disproved  over  and  over  again,  passed  upon 
after  careful  arguments  by  counsel  far  abler  than  Mr.  Bradish,  before  the 
Committee  of  the  House  of  Assembly  in  1847,  and  overruled  by  their  de- 
cision then,  are  expected  to  derive  new  efficacy  supported  by  an  oath,  when 
presented  at  this  day  as  the  ground  for  the  decision  of  the  Senate. 

u  Again,  to  point  out  another  instance  showing  the  entire  unreliability 
of  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Bradish,  I  call  the  attention  of  the  Committee  to 
the  fact  that  the  act  of  1814  had  passed  both  houses  on  the  2d  of  April, 
1813,  [see  p.  95  of  Mr.  Bradish's  testimony  in  the  first  Report  of  the  Com- 


20 


inittee,]  and  the  pamphlet  of  Col.  Troup  is  dated  on  the  6th  of  September, 
1813,  more  than  six  months  after  the  act  had  passed  both  houses.  Yet 
Mr.  Bradish  says,  [p.  101  of  first  Report  of  this  Committee,]  that  as  an 
inducement  to  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  1814,  it  was  urged  "as  morally 
certain,  that  the  future  increase  of  the  population  of  the  city  would  strongly 
recommend  to  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  the  policy  of  dividing 
its  Corporators,  and  setting  them  off  in  separate  Churches,  with  suitable 
endowments,  and  to  enable  the  Vestry  to  do  this  in  a  mode  free  from  all 
legal  doubts,  was  an  object  of  the  bill.  The  bill  xoas  dtawn  and  passed 
accordingly"  Yet  the  truth  is,  that  the  bill  was  drawn,  and  passed  both 
houses  six  months  before  Col.  Troup  said  anything  respecting  it  in  the  par- 
agraph alluded  to,  and  from  which  Mr.  Bradish  derives  his  authority.' 

All  the  other  evidence,  almost  without  exception,  may  be 
characterized  as  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  question,  sel- 
dom or  never  positive,  claiming  little  direct  acquaintance  with 
the  facts  of  which  it  testifies,  speaking  on  the  information  of 
others  who  themselves  heard  others  say  so  and  so,  setting  forth 
opinions  and  private  judgments,  and  then  swearing  to  their  cor- 
rectness. We  unhesitatingly  pronounce  the  greater  portion  of 
the  evidence  taken  before  the  Committee  in  New- York  as  the 
most  vague  and  unsatisfactory  body  of  testimony  ever  pre- 
sented before  a  judicial  tribunal.  Much  of  it  is  the  merest 
gossip  and  scandal,  such  as  they  say  a  certain  sex  at  a  certain 
age  indulge  in  around  the  tea-table  !  Not  one  of  these  witnesses 
was  subjected  to  a  cross-examination.  There  is  nothing  strong 
or  positive  about  this  testimony,  except  the  oaths,  which  would 
have  been  listened  to  in  a  court  of  law.  Yet  upon  this  the 
Committee  base  their  first  Report,  bringing  the  gravest  charges 
against  the  Vestry,  supported  by  the  evidence  of  those  who 
own  that  they  know  little  or  nothing  of  the  subject ! 

We  have  only  space  for  a  few  illustrations  as  proofs  of  the 
above  assertions.  The  Rev.  Jesse  Pound  swears  that  (p.  83) 
"  he  was  considerably  acquainted  with  the  proceedings  of 
Trinity  Church  in  managing  their  fund.  I  do  not  consider  the 
trust  has  been  administered  in  such  a  way  as  best  to  promote 
the  object  for  which  it  was  given."  Or,  as  we  may  expound 
his  meaning,  the  Vestry  did  not  advance  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  good  of  man,  in  the  person  of  the  Rev.  witness,  by  paying 
off  the  debts  and  supporting  him  in  a  church  which  has  proved 
itself  to  be  in  an  unfavorable  situation.  Trinity  was  surely 
not  answerable  for  the  falling  off  of  the  congregation. 


21 


The  Rev.  Dr.  Tyng  swears  (p.  86)  concerning  the  statement 
in  the  report  of  Trinity  Church  relative  to  St.  George's 
Church — u  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief  it  is  not 
correct,"  That  the  Doctor's  "  best  knowledge''  on  this  subject 
is  none  of  the  best,  a  poor  foundation  for  "belief"  to  rest  on, 
is  shown  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Berrian's  positive  testimony  upon  cer- 
tain knowledge.    (See  testimony,  p.  37.) 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor  (p.  104)  heard  "  a  very  worthy  minis- 
ter" say  that  his  wrarden  had  told  him  that  he,  the  warden,  had 
applied  to  the  Comptroller  of  Trinity  Church  for  aid  in  their 
pecuniary  embarrassment.  The  reply  was,  "We  can  give  you 
no  help,  for  your  minister  voted  against  us  at  the  last  Conven- 
tion." This  case  would  be  very  strong,  and  its  tragic  conse- 
quence very  lamentable,  if  the  power  rested  in  the  Comptroller 
to  give  such  a  reply.  Such  applications  can  only  be  decided 
by  the  voice  of  a  majority  in  Vestry  meeting.  As  a  conclusive 
proof  of  the  worth  of  such  kind  of  evidence,  we  learn  that  W. 
H.  Harison,  Esq.,  the  comptroller  at  that  time,  has  denied  pub- 
licly, over  his  signature,  that  such  an  occurrence  ever  took  place. 

Mr.  John  D.  Wolfe  (p.  105),  formerly  a  Vestryman,  testi- 
fies— "Have  never  seen  a  list  of  the  corporators;  the  Vestry- 
men are  not  allowed  to  see  it,  that  I  know  of."  The  Rector 
(p.  35)  testifies  positively,  as  a  fact  he  knows  of  that  this  list 
is  accessible  to  the  Vestrymen  at  any  time,  and  open  to  the 
inspection  of  the  corporators  at  the  annual  elections. 

Mr.  Stephen  Cambreleng,  (p.  Ill),  with  his  usual  candor,  in 
reply  to  the  question — "  Are  you  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  affairs  of  Trinity  Church?"  answers — "I  cannot  say  that 
I  am."  The  same  degree  of  candor  would  have  ensured  a  simi- 
lar answer  from  every  adverse. witness. 

The  Rev.  R.  S.  Howland,  and  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Geer  (p.  118), 
testify  to  the  fact,  that  the  generous  offer  of  the  former  was  not 
responded  to  by  the  Vestry  of  Trinity  Church.  But  the  evi- 
dence of  these  excellent  and  devoted  clergymen  does  not  reach 
the  point,  as  they  had  no  knowledge  of,  or,  at  least,  do  not  de- 
clare, the  reasons  which  influenced  the  Vestry  in  not  acceding 
to  the  request  alluded  to  Their  evidence,  moreover,  so  far 
as  it  goes,  helps  to  disprove  another  charge — that  of  partiality 


22 


to  those  called  11  high  churchmen."  We  have  never  heard  the 
worthy  clergymen  classed  among  the  so-called,  "  low.'' 

We  might  cite  further  instances,  but  we  must  conclude  with 
this  which  suggests  the  great  radical  defect,  impairing,  if  not 
destroying,  the  force  of  almost  the  whole  of  the  testimony  ad- 
verse to  the  Corporation.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Taylor  clearly  points 
out  this  defect  (p.  104),  when  he  declares  his  unfavorable 
opinion  is  formed  "  from  my  outward  observation  of  their 
acts."  The  acts  of  the  Corporation,  in  denying  requests,  and 
in  the  application  of  their  means,  may  appear  in  a  very  un- 
favorable light  to  outward  observation,  when  this  may  give  no 
just  view  of  their  character.  Reason,  judgment,  common 
sense,  which  should  guide  a  body  of  rational  men,  whether 
they  be  a  Vestry  or  a  Senate,  are  subjects  of  inward  observa- 
tion. The  doors  of  the  Senate  are  open,  and  their  debates, 
showing  the  reason  of  their  acts,  are  heard  ;  so  the  public  can, 
and  will  form  correct  opinions  of  their  doings.  Not  so  with  a 
Vestry.  And  we  hold,  that  no  evidence,  from  mere  "  outward 
observation,"  like  most  of  that  on  which  the  first  Report  was 
based,  can  fulfil  the  solemn  character  of  sworn  testimony — 
the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth  ! 

Evidence  against  the  acts  of  a  body  of  men,  who  sit  with 
closed  doors,  framed  from  mere  observation,  can  never  convict 
them  of  wrong.  It  does  not  touch  the  reasons  which  induced 
the  outward  acts,  and  by  which  alone  the  right  or  wrong  of 
these  acts  can  be  determined.  Such,  we  think,  from  a  careful 
examination,  is  the  prevailing  character  of  the  evidence  given  by 
the  chosen  witnesses  of  the  Select  Committee. 

As  a  striking  illustration  of  the  end  for  which  this  evidence 
was  taken,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  drawn  out, 
we  are  indebted  to  Gil  Bias.  There  are  too  many  points  of 
resemblance.  Our  readers  may  remember  that  the  inventive 
Ambrose  de  Lamela,  with  a  view  to  the  fleecing  of  Samuel 
Simon,  a  wealthy  Jew,  but  who  had  become  a  convert  to  the 
Church,  assumed  the  character  of  an  officer  of  the  Holy  Inqui- 
sition, Don  Raphael  that  of  his  Secretary,  and  Gil  Bias  that  of 
an  Alguazil.  The  preliminary  inquiry  was  first  made  of  a  land- 
lord in  the  neighborhood,  who  had  some  acquaintance  with 
Simon. 


23 


"Mr.  Secretary,  with  his  paper  already  in  his  hanc^and  pen 
behind  his  ear,  took  his  seat,  pompously,  and  made  ready  to 
take  down  the  landlord's  deposition,  who  promised  solemnly, 
on  his  part,  not  to  suppress  one  tittle  of  the  real  fact.  So  far  so 
good,"  said  the  worshipful  commissioner.  "  We  have  only  to 
proceed  in  our  examination.  You  will  only  just  answer  my 
questions,  but  do  not  interlard  your  replies  with  any  comments 
of  your  own.  Do  you  often  see  Samuel  Simon  at  church  ?" 
"I  never  thought  of  looking  for  him,"  said  the  drawer  of  corks, 
"but  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  saw  him  there  in  my  life.'"' 
"  Very  good,"  cried  the  Inquisitor.  "Write  down  that  the 
defendant  never  goes  to  church."  u  I  do  not  say  so,  your  wor- 
ship," answered  the  landlord,  "I  only  say  that  I  never  happened 
to  see  him  there.  We  may  have  been  at  church  together,  and 
yet  not  have  come  across  each  other."  "  My  good  friend," 
replied  Lamela  "  you  forget  that  you  are  deposing  to  facts,  and 
not  arguing.  Remember  what  I  told  you,  contempt  of  court 
is  a  heinous  offence  ;  you  are  to  give  a  sound  and  discreet  evi- 
dence, every  iota  of  what  makes  against  him,  and  not  a  word 
in  his  favor,  if  you  knew  volumes."  "  If  that  is  your  practice, 
0  upright  and  impartial  Judge,"  resumed  our  host,  'l  my  testi- 
mony will  scarcely  be  worth  the  trouble  of  taking.  I  know 
nothing  about  the  tradesman  you  are  inquiring  after,  and 
therefore  can  tell  neither  good  nor  harm  of  him,  but  if  you  wish 
to  examine  into  his  private  life,  I  will  run  and  call  Gaspard,  his 
apprentice,  whom  you  may  question  as  much  as  you  please. 
The  lad  comes  and  takes  his  glass  here  sometimes  with  his 
friends.  Bless  us,  what  a  tongue !  He  will  rip  up  all  the 
minutest  actions  of  his  master's  life,  and  find  employment  for 
your  Secretary  till  his  wrist  aches — take  my  word  for  it."  "  I 
like  your  open  dealing,"  said  Ambrose,  with  a  nod  of  approba- 
tion. "  To  point  out  a  man  so  capable  of  speaking  to  the  bad 
morals  of  Simon,  is  an  instance  of  Christian  charity,  as  well 
as  of  religious  zeal.  I  shall  report  you  very  favorably  to  the 
Inquisition." 

So  much  for  the  character  of  the  evidence  before  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Senate. 

3.  The  Reports. — We  now  come  to  the  last,  but  not  the 
least,  demonstration  of  the  prejudice  and  partisan  feeling  influ- 
encing the  prominent  actors,  in  this  remarkable  attempt  to 
legislate  property  out  of  the  hands  of  its  rightful  possessors — 
the  two  Reports  of  the  Select  Committee.  The  first  was,  for 
the  most  part,  in  accordance  with  the  evidence,  a  fitting  super- 


24 


structure  jpr  such  a  foundation,  and  on  that  it  must  stand  or 
fall.  Built,  as  we  have  shown,  on  the  sand  of  prejudice  or 
partial  and  imperfect  knowledge,  and  not  upon  the  strong 
foundation  of  truth,  it  could  not  withstand  the  force  of  the 
"  Testimony  introduced  on  the  part  of  the  Vestry."  As  this 
overthrew  all  its  positions,  and  contradicted  all  its  statements, 
by  positive  assertions  of  truth ;  as  its  infirm  Law  could  not 
stand  up  against  the  strong  legal  arguments  of  able  counsel, 
and  its  false  testimony  was  overwhelmed  by  the  evidence  of 
well-informed  witnesses,  a  new  effort  was  necessary.  Then 
came  the  second  Report,  louder  than  the  first,  as  if  the  Com- 
mittee had  only  used  the  new  evidence  for  wadding,  and  ram- 
med it  down  hard  to  produce  this  stunning  effect  ! 

As  much  has  been  claimed  for  the  evidence  of  the  witnesses 
against  Trinity,  because  of  their  high  respectability  and  char- 
racter,  a  word  may  surely  be  said  in  behalf  of  those  who  have 
given  testimony  in  her  behalf.  The  Clergy  and  Laymen  who 
have  appeared  for  her,  will  hardly  suffer  by  a  comparison 
with  those  arrayed  against  her.  The  greater  knowledge,  the 
more  certain  information  which  their  position  secured,  will 
more  than  counterbalance  any  alleged  partiality  on  the  part  of 
men,  whose  honor  and  integrity  are  above  the  reach  of  sus- 
picion. 

The  "  testimony  introduced  on  the  part  of  the  Vestry,"  to 
counteract  the  ex  parte  evidence  gathered  by  the  Committee, 
covers  some  hundred  and  thirty  pages  of  printed  matter.  The 
arguments  of  the  able  counsel  of  Trinity,  directed  against  the 
assumptions  of  the  ex  parte  Report  of  the  Committee,  occupy 
sixty-six  more.  The  second  Report  of  the  Committee,  which 
we  should  rather  call  a  Reply  to  the  evidence  of  the  Vestry 
and  the  arguments  of  their  counsel,  is  contained  in  twenty-one 
pages.  The  witnesses  and  the  learned  counsel  of  Trinity  were 
made  to  feel  that  they  were  meeting  an  adverse  body,  when 
they  came  before  the  Committee,  as  its  Honorable  Chairman 
often  spoke  of  ilourside,!)  which  meant  not  the  side  of  truth, 
but  the  side  opposite  to  Trinity.  The  tenor  of  the  cross-exami- 
nations by  the  Committee  made  them  appear  in  the  light  of 
opposing  counsel !    We  may  well  ask  whether  this  was  a 


25 


proper  appreciation  of  the  responsible  office  of  those  who  held 
the  place  of  Judges?  The  Hon.  Mr.  Parker  begins  his  argu- 
ment with  these  words,  which  were  not  contradicted:  "I 
address  the  Committee  as  a  judicial  body."  Their  Report  to 
the  Senate  should  therefore  have  had  the.  impartial  character 
of  a  judicial  charge.  It  sinks,  by  an  unworthy  degradation, 
into  the  special  plea  of  an  attorney  who  has  to  contend  against 
the  evidence !  The  positive  testimony  of  the  witnesses  on  the 
part  of  the  Vestry,  weighs  down  the  light,  vague,  and  negative 
evidence  of  the  opposing  witnesses  ;  so  the  Committee  threw 
themselves  along  with  their  Report,  into  the  scales,  to  "  make 
the  balance  true !" 

If  any  one,  with  an  unprejudiced  mind,  will  carefully  read 
the  testimony  and  arguments  of  the  witnesses  and  counsel, 
introduced  by  the  Vestry,  and  then  compare  this  with  the  Re. 
port,  their  convictions  will  be  strong  on  this  point.  Our  space 
will  only  permit  us  to  give  a  few  samples  ;  enough,  however, 
to  show  the  quality  of  the  whole  compound. 

The  following  sweeping  statement,  which  almost  makes  one 
whistle,  will  fitly  introduce  our  readers  to  this  Report : — 

"  It  will  appear,  from  a  careful  examination  of  the  mass  of 
evidence  presented  by  Trinity  Church,  that  every  point  of 
importance  set  forth  in  the  previous  Report  of  your  Committee, 
is  here  abundantly  corroborated." — Report,  p.  12. 

We  have  tried  hard  to  find  some  proper  epithet,  suited  at 
once  to  the  respect  we  owe  to  a  Senatorial  Committee  and  to 
the  truth,  to  characterize  this  statement.  We  dare  not  use  the 
mildest  euphemism,  so  we  conclude  with  the  canny  old  Scot, 
that  "  it's  mair  discreet  just  to  whistle !"  If  our  readers  will 
take  the  pains  to  compare  this  statement  with  the  testimony  of 
the  Rector,  Dr.  Haight,  General  Dix,  and  others,  they  may 
find  it  hard  to  imitate  our  discretion. 

In  immediate  connection  with  the  above,  is  the  following 
repetition  of  a  disproved  charge  : — 

li  Additional  evidence  proves  the  difficulty  in  obtaining  a 
copy  of  the  list  of  corporators,  only  one  copy  appearing  to  have 
been  ever  aiven,  and  that  not  until  after  a  formal  vote  of  the 
Vestry.  The  list  is  stated  to  be  inaccurate  also,  Mr.  Verplanck 
believing  that  "  many"  names  are  omitted  from  the  list  of  per- 
sons entitled  to  be  entered." 


26 


In  what  manner  this  "additional  evidence  proves  the  diffi- 
culty," will  appear  by  the  following,  from  that  of  Rev.  Dr. 
Berrian  (p.  35)  : 

"  Q.  Is  the  list  of  the  corporators  of  Trinity  Church  kept  in 
the  joint  charge  of  the  Comptroller  and  Rector?  A.  There 
seems  to  have  been  some  misapprehension  on  this  subject. 
The  list  is  kept  in  the  vestry  office,  and  is  under  the  sole  cus- 
tody of  the  Comptroller.  My  only  agency  in  regard  to  this 
list  is,  to  make  an  annual  statement  on  the  meeting  of  the  Ves- 
try, immediately  preceding  the  election  of  wardens  and  vestry- 
men at  Easter  ;  of  the  names  of  the  new  communicants,  which 
have  been  added  in  the  interval,  and  the  decrease  of  the  nam- 
«  ber  in  the  same  period,  by  death,  or  removal,  in  order  to  ren- 

der the  list  more  accurate  and  complete.  This  is  done  regu- 
larly every  year,  and  how  one  vestryman,  if  accustomed  to  be 
in  his  place,  and  giving  any  proper  attention  to  the  business 
before  him,  could  have  been  ignorant  of  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  done  ;  or  another,  having  never  seen  this  list,  a  privilege 
which  he  had  a  right  to  demand,  but  which  he  never  appears 
to  have  claimed,  is  to  me  a  matter  of  surprise. 

"Q.  State  whether  the  book  containing  this  list  is  usually 
taken  to  the  place  where  the  election  of  wardens  and  vestry- 
men is  held  ?  A.  I  know  that  it  is  frequently,  if  not  uniformly, 
and  I  believe  that  it  is  open  to  the  inspection  of  any  persons 
present,  who  may  have  the  curiosity  to  examine  it." 

The  following  i:  additional"  item  is  from  the  testimony  of  G. 
C.  Verplanck,  Esq.  (p.  96). : 

"Q.  State  whether  there  is  any  order  of  the  Vestry  prohib- 
iting free  access  to  the  list  of  corporators  ?  A.  There  is  no 
order  to  that  effect;  the  superior  officers  have  never  refused  to 
my  knowledge  any  one.  1  cannot  say  what  the  clerks  may 
have  done.  The  books  lie  in  places  open  all  day,  at  least,  and 
the  one  containing  the  pew-holder  corporators  is  in  the  outer 
office,  where  pew-rents  are  collected,  and  frequently  examined 
by  any  one  I  think  who  has  the  curiosity.  The  book  contain- 
ing the  list  of  communicant  corporators  is  kept  in  an  inner 
office  on  an  open  desk  ;  I  never  knew  the  examination  of  it 
refused." 

We  find  the  following  declaration  of  Senatorial  reporting 
on  this  same  page  12  : 

"  No  contradiction  is  offered  to  the  statement  in  your  Com- 
mittee's  Report  as  to  the  singular  pew-leases  first  given  at  Trinity 


27 


Chapel.  The  explanation  is,  in  substance,  that  it  was  a  measure 
of  over  prudence,  adopted  in  order  to  prevent  the  intrusion  of 
pew-holders  who  "had  no  sympathy"  with  the  Vestry.  The 
measure  was  condemned  at  the  time  by  some  of  the  Vestry 
themselves,  and  is  defended  now  by  none." 

These  are  Mr.  Verplanck's  words,  (p.  98)  : — 

"  The  motive  of  those,  however,  who  carried  it  through,  was 
that  of  the  precautionary  prudence  against  the  intrusion  of  a 
body  of  pew-holders  who  had  no  sympathies  with  us  or  any 
other  church.  It  was  recommended  by  a  committee  and 
approved  hy  a  majority  of  the  Vestry.  It  was  repealed  before 
it  could  have  any  practical  effect." 

No  reference  is  here  made  to  " sympathy  with  the  Vestry,'* 
but  to  those  whose  sympathies  were  of  a  secular  rather  than  an 
ecclesiastical  tendency  !  No  notice  is  taken  of  the  important 
fact  that  the  effect  of  the  erection  of  Trinity  Chapel  was  to 
increase  the  Church  accommodations  for  the  poor,  downtown. 
This  fact  is  thus  stated  by  Dr.  Haight,  p.  7  : — 

"The  arrangements  in  regard  to  the  pews  at  Trinity  Chapel, 
to  which  I  have  referred,  were  these  :  The  Vestry  offered  to 
each  party  holding  a  pew  in  either  of  their  three  down-town 
churches,  who  might  be  desirous  of  obtaining  a  pew  in  Trinity 
Chapel,  to  credit  him  with  the  amount  of  the  rent  of  his  pew 
down  town  on  condition  that,  while  he  occupies  the  pew  in 
Trinity  Chapel,  the  Vestry  should  be  entitled  to  the  use  of  the 
pew  down  town.  The  pews  which  thus  come  into  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Vestry  have  been  thrown  open  by  them  for  general 
use,  without  charge.  As  the  number  of  pews  of  this  class  is 
quite  large,  as  I  have  before  said,  Trinity  and  St.  Paul's  have 
become,  in  a  large  measure,  free  churches,  and  St.  John's 
measurably  so,  and  these  churches  are  of  such  a  character, 
architecturally  and  otherwise,  as  to  secure  the  attendance  of 
the  poor  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  has  been  found  practi- 
cable in  humbler  edifices." 

We  find  the  following  remarkable  statement  on  page  9  : — 

"  In  the  Vestry  itself,  the  supposed  monopoly  of  knowledge 
and  power  by  the  Standing  Committee  is  declared  not  to  exist. 
The  Rector  testifies  that  the  reports  made  by  that  Committee 
are  overruled  by  the  Vestry,  'scores  of  times  or  as  Mr.  Ver- 
planck  more  quietly  expresses  it,  this  reversal  takes  place 
sometimes  and  in  unimportant  matters.'  " 


28 

The  word  li  unimportant,"  which  appeared  in  the  Report, 
as  printed  by  the  Committee,  is  said  to  be  a  clerical  mistake, 
but  even  this  correction  does  not  alter  the  tenor  or  drift  of  the 
sentence,  or  make  it  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Verplanck's  testi- 
mony, viz.  : 

"  Q.  What  do  you  say  as  to  the  alleged  control  of  the  Stand- 
ing Committee  ?  A.  On  some  subjects,  it  is  necessarily  great 
— as  to  the  valuation  of  property,  and  the  terms  on  which 
property  should  be  sold — they  being  familiar  from  long  and 
daily  experience  with  the  value  of  our  property  in  detail.  On 
other  points,  such  as  allowances  or  gifts  to  churches,  the  Ves- 
try form  their  own  judgment,  and  frequently  refer  matters 
back  to  them  for  re-consideration  ;  sometimes,  and  in  important 
matters,  rejecting  their  Eeport,  and  making  or  refusing  grants, 
in  opposition  to  their  recommendation.  A  case  in  point  has 
just  been  referred  to  in  this  examination.  It  is  that  of  the 
Church  known  as  St.  John  the  Baptist,  a  donation  to  which 
the  Standing  Committee  had  reported  against,  and  which,  after 
full  consideration  and  debate,  was  granted,  nearly  to  the 
amount  asked." 

The  Report,  after  alluding  in  a  very  disingenuous  style  (p. 
10)  to  the  very  strong  declarations  of  Gen.  Dix,  the  Rector, 
and  various  other  witnesses,  in  relation  to  the  influence  of 
"  party  divisions"  in  affecting  the  appropriations  of  the  Vestry, 
thus  concludes  in  direct  opposition  to  the  evidence  (p.  11): 
"Among  all  the  stipends  now  and  of  late  years  granted,  the 
only  one  that  is  stated  in  the  evidence,  to  be  given  to  a  'low' 
Church  clergyman,  amounts  to  8300  a  year." 

Now,  Mr.  Verplanck,  agsinst  whose  evidence  this  Commit- 
tee seem  to  have  some  special  spite,  had  merely  referred  to 
the  following,  as  one  among  the  appropriations  to  institutions 
of  charity  (p.  95)  : 

"  Another  stipend  is  a  charity  rather  than  a  church  donation, 
to  a  minister,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cook,  the  German  missionary  at 
Ward's  Island  and  in  the  city  among  German  emigrants  ;  I 
think  the  allowance  is  $300.  I  suppose  I  may  add,  as  there 
has  been  an  allusion  to  it  in  a  previous  question,  that  he  is  a 
'  low'  Churchman  ;  and  I  never  have  known  of  any  objec- 
tion being  made  to  the  motion  I  make  every  year  for  the  ap- 
propriation." 


29 


The  Committee,  in  saying  that  this  was  the  only  "  stipend" 
now  and  of  late  years  given  to  a  "  low"  Churchman,  had  forgot- 
ten the  following  testimony  of  Dr.  Haight: 

"  In  looking  over  the  list  of  parishes,  whose  churches  have 
been  mortgaged  to  Trinity  Church,  I  find  eight,  the  clergy  and 
lay  delegates  of  which,  for  a  series  of  years,  on  all  leading  ques- 
tions, spoke  and  voted  differently  from  the  Rector  and  lay  de- 
legates of  Trinity.  Two  of  these  are  mortgaged  for  $25,000, 
two  for  $20,000,  one  for  $5,000,  the  other  three  for  smaller 
sums.  So,  also,  in  regard  to  the  churches  which  have  received 
grants  of  land  and  money,  or  annual  stipends.  I  find  nearly 
thirty  which  have  taken  the  same  independent  course  in  Com 
vention,  without  regard  to  the  course  of  Trinity.  My  opinion 
of  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Diocese  ol  New- York  is  such, 
that  I  do  not  think  it  would  be  practicable  for  any  Corporation 
to  buy  their  opinions  or  their  votes.  Of  the  churches  last  re- 
ferred to,  six  received  gifts  of  money  and  land,  and  twelve  re- 
ceived gifts  of  money  alone,  two  received  gifts  of  land  and  a 
stipend,  three  received  gifts  of  land  alone,  six  received  gifts 
of  stipend  alone.  My  knowledge  of  the  votes  of  the  lay  dele- 
gates and  clergy  of  the  several  parishes,  is  derived  from  the 
fact  that,  for  a  series  of  years  it  became  my  duty  at  every  Con- 
vention to  call  the  ayes  and  noes  on  very  many  questions  : 

And  then  in  their  remarks  upon  this  proportion  in  the  do- 
nations, they  seem  to  regard  the  Diocese  of  New- York  as 
equally  divided  between  the  "  the  high  "  and  "  the  low,"  and 
that  Trinity  only  doles  out  a  small  measure  of  her  bounty  among 
the  lower  half.  Whereas  the  proportion  of  her  gifts  bears  a  very 
fair  ratio  to  the  number  of  this  particular  class  in  the  Dio- 
cese. 

The  Report  states  (p.  14,)  that  they  do  not  understand  the 
Church  to  deny  the  gross  valuation  of  their  property,  at 
$6,487,050.  The  testimony  leaves  the  first  statement  made 
by  the  Vestry  unchanged  ! 

The  Report  declares,  (p.  17)  "no  direct  attempt  is  made  to  dis- 
own or  disclaim  the  representations  urged  by  Col.  Troup,  in  or- 
der to  obtain  the  Law  of  1814."  We  have  already  quoted  the 
strong  disclaimer  of  Mr.  Ogden,  and  now  add  the  following  from 
Mr.  J.  R.  Livingston's  testimony,  (p.  129.) 


30 


"  Q.  Is  it  true,  as  stated  in  the  Eeport  of  the  Committee,  foot 
of  page  16,  that  Colonel  Troup's  pamphlet  was  an  inducement 
to  the  Legislature  to  pass  the  Act  of  1814  ?  A.  It  cannot  be 
true,  from  the  fact  that  the  act  was  passed  on  the  2d  of  April, 
1813,  and  the  pamphlet  bears  date  the  6th  of  September  fol- 
lowing. 

The  Report  says  (p.  18),  "Nor  does  there  appear  to  be  any 
manner  in  which  responsibility  can  be  secured  ecclesiastically, 
any  more  than  civilly."  Here  is  Bishop  Potter's  testimony, 
(p.  23). 

"  Q.  Is  not  the  administration  of  this  fund  entirely  and 
absolutely  separate  from  all  the  religious  and  ecclesiastical 
care  of  the  Church,  as  a  religious  society  ?    A.  I  think  not. 

"  Q.  Wherein  does  she  exercise  any  control  ?  A.  The  im- 
mediate disposal  of  this  fund  is  ordered  in  the  presence  of  and 
by  the  Rector,  Wardens  and  Vestrymen,  of  the  parish.  They 
are  both  immediately  responsible  to  me  as  the  bishop  of  the 
diocese,  and  are  amenable  to  the  Church  of  this  diocese  assem- 
bled in  Convention.  I  do  not  mean,  however,  to  be  understood 
that  I  supervise  the  details  of  appropriations,  or  that  my  assent 
is  essential  to  the  validity  of  any  grants  by  the  Vestry. 

The  Report  (p.  20),  pretends  to  derive  from  the  evidence 
the  following  arguments,  to  show  the  necessity  of  widening 
the  sphere  of  the  corporators,  so  as  to  include  among  them 
sufficient  wealth  and  intelligence  for  the  choice  of  Wardens  and 
Vestrymen  ! 

"  Dr.  Haight  describes  the  congregation  at  Trinity  as  made 
up  of  strangers,  young  men,  transient  residents,  and  the  poor. 
Dr.  Vinton  testifies  that  the  congregation  at  St.  Paul's  is  com- 
posed mainly  of  strangers,  clerks,  mechanics,  artizans,  porters, 
washerwomen,  hucksters,  and  miscellaneous  poor,  making  their 
living  as  daily  laborers.  Dr.  Higbee  says  that  these  removals 
have  "gradually  and  surely  deprived  Trinity  and  St.  Paul's  of 
their  regular  congregations,  and  parochial  spirit,  responsibility, 
and  efficiency  ?"  and  that  they  "  diminish  and  weaken,  in  a  con- 
tinually increasing  ratio,  the  constituency  of  the  Corporation, 
thus  destroying  the  equilibrium  of  the  parish,  and  undermining 
its  foundations  as  an  institution  of  public  charity."  As  an  un- 
avoidable consequence  of  this  sweeping  change,  both  in  the 
number  and  the  character  cf  the  corporators,  it  has  been  found 
impossible  to  "  keep  up  the  standing  of  the  constituency  ; '  and 
Dr.  Berrian  excuses  the  present  state  of  things  on  the  ground 
that  in  former  times  there  was  "  a  wider  range  than  now  for 


31 


the  choice  of  distinguished  and  intelligent  vestrymen,"  quali- 
fied to  administer  so  important  a  trust. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  the  testimony,  and  see  what  these  Rev- 
erend gentlemen  really  say,  for  we  have  learned  by  sad  ex- 
perience not  to  depend  on  the  quotations  of  the  Report ! 

Dr.  Haight  says  (p.  4.):  "  The  congregation  at  Trinity 
Church  is  large,  and  composed  in  great  part  of  strangers,  tran- 
sient residents,  young  men,  clerks,  &c,  and  the  poor,  upon 
none  of  whom  is  any  tax,  in  the  form  of  pew-rent  or  otherwise, 
laid  for  the  support  of  the  ministrations  of  the  Church." 

There  is  a  slight  difference  between  the  words  of  the  Report 
"made  up  of,"  and  the  language  of  the  evidence  "composed 
in  great  part  of!"  There  are  a  few  more  left  of  the  old  sort, 
permanent  worshippers  in  Trinity  yet ! 

Dr.  Vinton  says  (p.  60.)  :  "  At  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  the  only 
one  I  speak  of,  the  congregation  is  composed  of  three  classes  : 
first,  the  old  families  retaining  their  seats  ;  second,  strangers 
from  the  hotels,  clerks,  an(J  sojourners  of  the  city,  engaged,  for 
the  most  part,  in  mercantile  business ;  third,  mechanics,  arti- 
zans,  porters,  washer-women,  hucksters,  and  miscellaneous 
poor,  who  obtain  their  living  by  daily  labor." 

The  Report  omits  as  unimportant  a  the  old  families  retaining 
their  seats,"  some  of  whom  are  not  quite  beneath  the  notice 
even  of  State  Senators. 

Dr.  Berrian  and  Dr.  Higbee  were  both  speaking  of  the  past, 
not  the  present  state  of  things.  But  surely  a  Senatorial  Com- 
mittee can  change  tenses  as  well  as  laws  ! 

We  might  further  show  many  errors  of  omission  and  com- 
mission, such  as  any  reference  to  the  fact  that  three  of  the 
Clergy,  and  one  of  the  Vestry,  had  corrected  the  wrong  im- 
pression given  to  their  evidence  ;  the  blank  silence,  or  even 
more  questionable  utterances  of  the  Report  as  to  the  gifts, 
endowments,  charities,  provisions,  for  free  churches,  for  mission- 
aries, for  "  its  own"  and  other  poor,  &c.  But  the  whole  Re- 
port and  Testimony  must  he  read,  to  show  how  strongly  the 
main  drift  of  the  former  runs  against  the  current  of  the  latter. 
The  Committee,  however,  may  find  themselves  mistaken  in 
their  estimate  of  the  popular  tide ! 


82 


But,  really,  we  have  followed  these  vestiges  of  Senatorial 
creation  far  enough,  perhaps  beyond  our  reader's  patience, 
to  show  the  beautiful  concord  between  the  Testimony  and  the 
Report  !  The  Committee  have  used  their  Senatorial  powers 
to  grant  these  a  divorce,  and  as  the  parties  can  never  agree, 
we  had  better  allow  them  to  remain  separate.  Perhaps,  we 
should  rather  say,  as.  a  Select  Committee,  they  have  used  their 
appropriate  powers  in  selecting  approved  extracts  from  the 
testimony.  Still  this  does  not  account  for  the  omission  of 
those  parts  which  bear  most  strongly  upon  the  great  questions 
at  issue.  It  may  be  that  they  believe  in  a  Church  without  a 
Bishop  !  Thus  only  can  we  account  for  their  omission,  among 
many  other  important  points,  of  the  solemn  testimony  of 
Bishop  Potter  and  Bishop  Delancey,  as  to  the  fraud  which 
would  be  committed,  and  the  evils  which  would  arise  from 
the  repeal  of  a  law,  which  by  the  limitation  of  time,  has  be- 
come "  a  statute  of  repose.'*' 

We  venture  the  supposition,  we  /'  know  nothing,"  that  the 
members  of  this  venerable  Committee  are  citizens  of  some 
larger  town,  perhaps  of  our  metropolis.  There  is  a  dryness 
and  a  hardness  in  their  Report,  which  speak  nothing  of  the 
verdure  and  the  freshness  of  rural  scenes.  Thus  only  can  we 
account  for  the  fact,  that  our  country  friends  are  not  warned  of 
the  dangers  and  the  evils  which  this  proposed  measure  will 
bring  upon  them.  They  must  be  as  green  and  verdant  as  their 
own  beautiful  meadows,  if  they  do  not  see  this.  The  bounty 
which  has  flowed  to  them,  in  gentle  rivulets  and  quiet  streams, 
our  rapacious  and  greedy  citizens  are  seeking  to  dam  up  and 
bring  into  a  general  reservoir  for  city  use.  The  country  may 
only  become  awake  to  this  fact,  when  they  see  their  Croton 
distributed  in  the  pipes  and  bath-tubs  of  New-York.  Then, 
woe  to  the  politicians,  and  the  political  party,  by  whose  aid  this 
result  has  been  accomplished !  They  will  know  the  palsy 
which,  by  an  eternal  ordinance,  will  ever  blight  the  hand  dar- 
ing to  touch  that  which  has  been  consecrated  to  the  Most 
High. 

Lest  some  may  think  that  a  fervid  imagination  is  trying  to  ex- 
cite them  by  its  own  dreams,  we  add  the  sober  testimony  given 


33 


under  the  solemnity  ot  an  oath,  by  Bishop  Delancey  of  the 
Western  Diocese  of  New-York. 

u  The  repeal  of  the  law  would  be  disastrous  to  the  whole 
Church  of  the  State,  outside  the  city.  1.  By  raising  the  ques- 
tion, as  to  the  right  of  dispersing  any  of  this  property  out  of 
the  city,  which  is  denied  by  some,  but  which,  the  present  Cor- 
poration has  admitted,  and  has  temporarily  acted  on.  2.  By 
leading,  almost  necessarily,  to  the  division  of  all  the  property 
among  the  city  churches.  8.  By  thus  cutting  off  all  the  feeble 
country  churches  from  the  "benefit  of  this  favor.  4.  By  stop- 
ping what  has  been  a  stream  of  most  salutary  and  fertilizing 
benevolence  to  religious,  charitable,  or  educational  institutions 
in  the  rural  districts." 

"We  impeach  no  man's  motives,  but  we  speak  our  honest 
convictions,  when  we  say  that  an  attempt  to  stop,  or  to  direct 
the  present  quiet  and  beneficent  flow  of  the  bounty  from  Trin- 
ity Church,  is  the  act  of  no  friend  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
Church  or  of  the  State.  Who  are  they  that  are  clamoring  for 
this  change  ?  Are  they  the  poor,  or  the  needy,  whose  calls 
have  been  despised  or  neglected  ?  The  leaders  in  this  move- 
ment are  rich  men  and  rich  congregations,  many  of  whom  have 
already  had  their  full  share  of  property,  which  has  ever  been 
used,  according  to  the  best  intentions,  if  not  the  wisest,  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  man. 

Our  humble  voice  may  never  reach  the  ears  of  a  single  Le- 
gislator. If  it  does  reach  them,  we  say,  pause,  deliberate  well, 
before  you  disturb  that  which  has  long  reposed  in  the  rest  of 
the  eternal  shelter  which  Law  should  throw  around  Right. 
Enough  already  are  the  disturbing  elements  in  the  political 
atmosphere.  Add  not  to  the  agitations  of  the  State  the  ele- 
ments of  deeper  excitement.  Let  the  Church  and  her  pro- 
perty alone.  The  State  has  enough  to  do  in  taking  care  of  it- 
self 


.CJWC 


